Lawmakers: 'Ominous' video a warning to ATF whistle-blowers after 'Furious'

[QuietDan]

Here's the video discussed in the article:

Basically, the new Acting Director is trying to shut down whistle-blower leaks and he's doing it in violation of Whistle-blower Laws and Inspector-General Laws on the books.

Here's the article, with a link:

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Lawmakers: 'Ominous' video a warning to ATF whistle-blowers after 'Furious'

The head of ATF recently warned employees that they will face "consequences" if they don't "respect the chain of command," in what Republican lawmakers are decrying as an "ominous message" meant to frighten would-be whistle-blowers in the wake of the Operation Fast and Furious scandal.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa., and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., fired off a letter Wednesday to Acting Director B. Todd Jones saying the message "could be interpreted as a threat" and urging him to clarify.

"It was scary," Issa told Fox News on Thursday, in reference to Jones' video message to employees.

In the

, Jones touched on a topic he described as "choices and consequences." By that, Jones said, he was talking about "organizational discipline" and the need for workers to "play by the rules" -- embedded in the warning was the line about properly raising internal concerns.

"Choices and consequences means simply that if you make poor choices, that if you don't abide by the rules, that if you don't respect the chain of command, if you don't find the appropriate way to raise your concerns to your leadership, there will be consequences, because we cannot tolerate -- we cannot tolerate -- an undisciplined organization," he said.

Issa told Fox News it's obvious what Jones was talking about.

"What it appears to be is a not-so-veiled threat telling (ATF employees) not to do what they did to expose Fast and Furious," Issa said, referring to whistle-blowers who went outside the chain of command to alert lawmakers to problems with the anti-gunrunning operation that let thousands of guns "walk" into Mexico. "He's basically saying 'no, keep it in the chain'."

In their letter to Jones, Issa and Grassley wrote that ATF employees must know about their legally protected right to talk to Congress "free and clear of agency interference or retaliation."

"Your ominous message -- which could be interpreted as a threat -- is likely to have a major chilling effect on ATF employees exercising their rights to contact Congress," they wrote. "Therefore, it needs to be clarified."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/19/lawmakers-ominous-video-warning-to-atf-whistleblowers-after-furious/#ixzz215FS9Ppn

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I didn't know about the letter. Just one more reason to end the ATF with a lot of other runaway agencies.

That director should be in prison, along with Holder and a few more in this administration.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Speech message-- Circle the wagons. Traitors will be shot.

Edited July 19, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[hornett22]

Another example of how the laws don't apply to LE.